Neil LaBute (Dead Lepers? Sounds like my kind of show, G2, May 13) says he greatly admires the title Vertical Smile, the original name of the play Happy Now? The playwright, however, did not originate this title. Prefaced by "The", it was the name of a novel by the author of The Manchurian Candidate, and was considerably more daring in 1971. Book reviewers were in a real dilemma about whether to explain it and how. I am sure the late Richard Condon, an immensely genial man, would have been greatly amused to know that it was used again, by a playwright named Lucinda Coxon.Rhoda KoenigLondon

Hazel Blears says there is "no good reason" not to hold cabinet meetings in a variety of locations around the country (Report, May 13). The environmental cost of transporting ministers and numerous aides, advisers and hangers-on around the country to satisfy some fatuous PR agenda is one very good reason why not.Guy WoodwardDublin, Ireland

So Cherie Blair's "fourth pregnancy was caused by her being too embarrassed to bring her contraception to Balmoral" (Gloriously tragic, G2, May 13). I'd have thought that, having grown up in Edinburgh, Tony Blair would have known the meaning of "getting off at Haymarket".Alessandra AsteritiCulross, Fife

Hawkwind (Letters, May 13) were strikingly prescient in Uncle Sam's on Mars, with its layers of smoke in the atmosphere making the earth too hot to bear, causing the US to eye up new territory.Andrew LockLondon

John Pidgeon (Letters, May 14) may be overrun by foreign Nobbys in Kent, but the sturdy British Stobby still dominates the London-Manchester route. Three weeks ago, Stobby 22, Nobby 15; return journey, Stobby 16, Nobby 9. I award two for a tractor unit pulling two trailers.Dave TraharCheshunt, Hertfordshire

When Eddies and Norberts became commonplace I introduced Prestons of Potto to the game. It is still unusual to see all three in one journey. Peter LowthianMarlow, Buckinghamshire